--- title: Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Your friend Ming speaks Mandarin at home, and you pick it up the way he did as a toddler: by ear, never from a book. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / Hello and goodbye: the first words at… # Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate Lesson 1 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/0/) — Your friend Ming speaks Mandarin at home, and you pick it up the way he did as a toddler: by ear, never from a book. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/1/) — We write what you hear in pinyin, with little tone marks showing whether the voice stays high, rises, dips or falls. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/2/) — The first word you catch is nǐ hǎo (hello, literally «you good»). - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/4/) — Just as you say «hiya» to a mate but «good morning» to the head teacher, Mandarin has a cheeky hāi for kids, a polite nín hǎo for Ming's granny, and a quick zǎo! for the morning. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/5/) — At home time you hear zàijiàn (goodbye, «again see»), bāibāi (bye-bye, borrowed from English), míngtiān jiàn (see you tomorrow) and huítóu jiàn (see you later). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/6/) — And when Ming's nǎinai asks chī le ma? (have you eaten?), she is not offering dinner — it is an old-style hello, like «all right?». - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/11/) — zǎoshang hǎo («DZOW-shahng HOW») is the fuller good morning, said to teachers and parents, and only until about mid-morning. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/13/) — zàijiàn («dzye-JYEN», both falling) means goodbye, literally «again see»; it is fine for anyone, and if your voice rises at the end it sounds like a question. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/14/) — bāibāi («bye-bye», high and level) is borrowed from English and is very common in Chinese families in Britain; to a grandparent or teacher zàijiàn is safer. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/15/) — míngtiān jiàn («MING-tyen JYEN») means see you tomorrow; míngtiān is tomorrow, so on a Friday people say xīngqīyī jiàn (see you Monday). - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/17/) — chī le ma? («CHR luh mah», the ch with the tongue curled back) means «have you eaten?»; grandparents and neighbours use it as a greeting, and the polite answer is chī le, nǐ ne? (I have, and you?); answer «no» and a granny may well start cooking for you. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/18/) — nǐ qù nǎr? («nee CHYOO nar») means «where are you off to?»; aunties use it as a street hello, so a vague answer like chūqù wánr (going out to play) is fine. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/19/) — nǎr (where?) dips and nàr (there) falls; only the tone tells the two apart. - next →: [The four tones: same sound, different meaning](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/) - ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)